Google denies plans to distribute OS based on Ubuntu

Reports are circulating that Google "is preparing its own distribution of …

A post on the Register, claiming that Google might be close to rolling out a "Goobuntu" Linux desktop distro, has been making the usual rounds in the tech news circuit today. Despite today being earnings release day, presumably a very busy time at the Google press relations office, technology spokeswoman Sonya Borälv responded very quickly to my query on the topic. She said that "[w]e use Ubuntu internally but have no plans to distribute it outside of the company."

The fine folks behind Ubuntu will be happy with this indirect endorsement by one of the biggest names in technology, but there won't be any Goobuntu PCs on the shelves of your local Best Buy for the foreseeable future. The Register is probably right when it says that Ubuntu stands to gain from having Google engineers working on their code, but the main premise for the article is easily dismissed.

The idea of Goobuntu isn't exactly new (French skills required), but the rumors and doctored screenshots of Goobuntu or other purported Google OSs have always turned out to be nothing more than hot air. Yet every time one rumor gets shot down, another one emerges a few weeks later, and the media circus begins again. Why this fascination with the possibility of a Google OS? Perhaps it's a byproduct of Google's recent forays into desktop tools. To wit: there's the Desktop Search utility, Google Talk instant messenger, Google Earth mapping toy, and more, but a full-blown consumer OS is a different ballgame. The Google web browser is another rumor that just won't die, and until that one happens, we're unlikely to see a more complex product like a Google Linux.

Licensing could be another issue holding back any public efforts to provide a Google OS. If Ubuntu adopts GPL 3 for any significant part of its distribution, the expected DRM-hating nature of that license would make it hard to reconcile Ubuntu, or any other OS or software released under GPL 3, with Google Video and any future Google Music service, which depend on DRM for their existence. Linus Torvalds has said that the Linux kernel will not be covered by GPL 3, but until it's clear which way distributions like Ubuntu or the underlying Debian will go with the major underpinnings of the OS, it might be unwise for any company invested in DRM-dependent services to start any major OS-related projects. The Debian project is well known for its freedom-lovin' attitude, though the community is not unequivocally supportive of GPL 3. Come back next month for another Google OS rumor deconstructed.